A Tesla whistleblower reports on unsafe levels of understaffing during the testing of Full Self-Driving in Houston.

      TL;DR: Fired Tesla manager Medrano claims Houston’s FSD test fleet had a 38:1 driver-to-manager ratio (Tesla's standard is 15:1). He answered a crash call while asleep, and HR advised him to use Do Not Disturb mode. He was terminated.

      Javier Medrano, a former fleet operations manager at Tesla, has initiated a federal lawsuit asserting that the company transformed its Houston Full Self-Driving test fleet into ongoing “rolling hazards” by rapidly expanding operations without sufficient safety oversight. Medrano was the only manager responsible for 38 vehicle operators across three shifts, resulting in a 38:1 ratio that allegedly breached Tesla’s own 15:1 safety requirement. In contrast, other cities with similar test fleets had several safety managers per shift.

      The operators comprised Tesla’s “Rodeo Team,” first disclosed by Business Insider in 2024. These drivers intentionally placed autonomous vehicles in perilous situations, intervening only at the last possible moment to collect FSD training data. Medrano became the sole operational manager eight months after joining Tesla in 2023. While the fleet expanded from 15 to 38 operators under his supervision, he did not receive additional support staff despite numerous requests.

      The crisis occurred when an FSD test vehicle was involved in an accident at 2:05 AM. Medrano was so fatigued that he answered the phone “physically asleep” and provided incorrect guidance to the operator, who allegedly encountered an impaired individual at the scene. The following day, Medrano informed HR that he had “no recollection” of the call. An HR representative reportedly suggested he set his phone to Do Not Disturb if he wanted to avoid interruptions during active testing shifts. His superior advised him to “delegate better.” “I didn’t have anybody to delegate to,” Medrano told The Independent.

      Tesla's Austin robotaxis crash four times more often than human drivers, and this lawsuit sheds light on the safety issues: a fleet operating beyond its own safety protocols, a single manager facing exhaustion, and institutional responses that treated his distress signals as time-management concerns. Meanwhile, Waymo has launched a subscription service featuring fleets with dedicated safety teams. In contrast, Tesla’s Rodeo Team functioned with one manager asleep at the controls. The lawsuit was filed after Medrano was let go. Tesla has not publicly responded to the claims.